【推荐1】Though diet and exercise are recommended as ways to improve health, new UC Riverside research in mice is the first to examine the long-lasting, combined effects of both factors when they are experienced early in life.

“Any time you go to a doctor with concerns about your weight, almost without fail, the doctor recommends that you exercise and eat less,” said researcher Marcell Cadney. “That’s why it’s surprising that most studies only look at diet or exercise separately. In this study, we wanted to include both,” he said.

The researchers found that early-life exercise led to reduced anxious behaviors and an increase in adult muscle and brain mass. When fed Western-style diets high in fat and sugar, the mice not only became fatter, but also grew into adults that preferred unhealthy food.

To obtain the findings, the researchers divided the young mice into four groups — those with access to exercise, those without access, those fed a standard, healthy diet and those who ate a Western diet. Mice started their diets immediately after weaning (断奶), and continued with them for three weeks until they reached adulthood. After an additional eight weeks of “washout”, during which all mice were housed without wheels and on a healthy diet, the researchers did a behavioral analysis and measured levels of several different hormones (激素).

One of those they measured, leptin, is produced by fat cells. It helps control body weight by increasing energy consumption and signaling that less food is required. Early-life exercise increased adult leptin levels in adult mice, regardless of the diet they ate. Previously, the research team found that eating too much fat and sugar as a child can change the microbiome (微生物群) for life, even if they later eat more healthily. Going forward, the team plans to study whether fat or sugar is more responsible for the negative effects they measured in Western-diet-fed mice.

This study offers great opportunities for health interventions in childhood habits. “Our findings may be related to understanding the potential effects of activity reductions and dietary changes associated with overweight,” said Marcell.

1. What is special about the new UCR research?

A．It finds the relation between health and diet.

B．It is the first to study the effect of exercise.

C．It takes both exercise and diet into account.

D．It gives equal importance to physical and mental health.

2. What may early-life exercise contribute to?

A．Stronger bones.	B．A peaceful mind.
C．A desire for healthy food.	D．The various microbiome for life.

3. What does the underlined word “leptin” in the last but one paragraph refer to?

A．A diet.

B．A mouse.

C．A behavior.

D．A hormone.

4. What can we learn from the last two paragraphs?

A．Early-life health habits matter.

B．It’s never too late to make a change.

C．A healthy body leads to a healthy mind.

D．Dietary habits make a difference to children’s behavior

【推荐2】Growing Minds Need Greener Spaces

It is not a secret that spending time outdoors is good for us.The more we learn about the benefits of being in nature, the more sense it makes to get outside.

    1    New research suggests that kids may learn better when they are surrounded by greener spaces.Green spaces are spaces filled with Vegetation-like trees,flowers and other plants.

But these days,outdoor time is competing for a child’s attention with indoor activities.Children may find it difficult to resist computers,television and electronic games.    2    All these indoor activities can hurt a child’s physical and mental health.

Doctor Payam Dadvand and his team at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona study the environment effects on health and learning.

The researchers used information from satellites to learn how much green space surrounded each school.Over one year, the children took computerized tests for four times.    3    They found that the children with higher contact with green space had better ability to memorize.They were also more attentive.    4    More trees means less air pollution.

    5    Lisa Freund is an expert in child psychology for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.She says more studies are needed to learn the Health and Human Development.She says more studies are needed to learn the reasons that vegetation in and around schools improves mental ability.

A．They measured memory and attention span.

B．This could be especially important for school children.

C．Approximately one half of the world population lives in cities.

D．The question of why green spaces affect learning is a new one.

E．The research suggests good air quality is the main reason for the results.

F．So, in many pans of the world children are spending less and less time outdoors.

G．The researchers created mathematical models to compare the amount of vegetation.

【推荐3】Experts like to say the best form of exercise is whatever kind you’ll actually do. But that may not always be the case; new research finds that people who combine exercise with their social lives may be at an advantage over solitary(独自) exercisers. Tennis, badminton and soccer are all better for longevity(长寿) than cycling, swimming, jogging or gym exercise, according to the research.

The study was based on data from about 8,500 adults who were part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study. They completed a health and lifestyle questionnaire, which included questions about type and frequency of physical activity, and were monitored by the researchers for around 25 years, a period during which about 4,500 of the subjects died.

Tennis came out on top in the research. Compared with people sitting all day, those who reported playing tennis as their main form of exercise could expect to add 9.7 years to their life time, followed by badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years) and health-club activities (1.5 years).

Tennis likely took the top spot because “it’s very interactive,” says study co-author Dr. James O’Keefe, a physician at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “At every point you’re talking. It’s just a very natural way to emotionally bond with people, besides getting your exercise.” But he adds that the study may not have been able to fully account for the fact that wealthier, better-educated people—who tend to be healthier to begin with—may be more likely to play tennis.

Activities like running and weight lifting still extend your life and offer plenty of other health benefits. But for the best possible benefits, O’Keefe says gym-goers may want to consider combining those workouts with activities that foster social connection.

O’Keefe, whose exercise typically includes running and weight lifting, says he’s even changed his own behavior because of the study: he and his family have taken up badminton.

“You can’t play badminton without feeling like a kid again,” he says. “It’s just pure fun.”

1. Which of the following is best for living a long life?

A．Cycling.	B．Badminton.
C．Swimming.	D．Gym exercise.

2. How many people were still living at the end of the research?

A．About 8,500.	B．About 4,500.
C．About 4000.	D．About 2500.

3. What matters most to the result of the research?

A．Family life.	B．Social connections.
C．Frequency of exercise.	D．Wealth and education.

4. What does O’Keefe do after the finding?

A．He puts the theory into practice.

B．He plays badminton just for fun.

C．He feels like playing badminton with kids.

D．He takes more exercise than before.

【推荐1】It's common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15. 4 degrees off to the observer's right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, "She’s not looking at you. " This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person's gaze( 凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the "Mona Lisa effect". That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person's gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars (虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the ”Mona Lisa" and realized she wasn't looking at him. To make sure it wasn't just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “ Mona Lisa" on a computer screen They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected Mona Lisa’s gaze. To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that?the woman in the “Mona Lisa” portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just thought it was a cool name..

1. What is generally believed about the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”?

A．She attracts the viewers to look back.

B．She seems mysterious because of her eyes.

C．She fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers.

D．She looks at the viewers wherever they stand.

2. What gaze range in a painting will cause the Mona Lisa effect?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3. Why was the experiment involving 24 people conducted?

A．To confirm Horstmann's belief

B．To create artificial-intelligence avatars

C．To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze

D．To explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied

4. What can we learn from the text?

A．Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term "Mona Lisa effect”

B．The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence.

C．Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention

D．The position of the ruler in the experiment will influence the viewers' judgment

【推荐3】The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark.     1     Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours rigorously practicing their craft.

If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability, a talent just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday.

    2     It would give her some idea of a fascinating circle she might someday join and fuel a need for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She’d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly perceive its inner workings.

Then she would practice writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. By practicing in this way, she delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges.     3     She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.

The primary trait she possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine. The latest research takes some of the magic out of great achievement.     4     And it’s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior.

A．Whether she was blessed with a good sense of language, the practice would motivate her.

B．By now she is redoing problems — how do I get characters into a room — dozens and dozens of times.

C．But it underlines a fact that is often neglected: public discussion is affected by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do.

D．It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess.

E．This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self.

F．Researchers can safely draw the conclusion that she has internalized the skill of writing stories.